Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has been explaining the human condition to us better than anyone else. He first did it with his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, which explored why people were so passionately divided over politics and religion, and argued that people are fundamentally religiously inclined creatures. Then, he did it again with The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, which laid out why kids today—especially on college campuses—have become so intolerant of opinions that conflict with their own.
Now, he’s done it once more with his new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. This time, Haidt explains what so many parents have been confused by for the last decade: Why are kids today more anxious than ever, more depressed than ever, more risk-averse than ever, lonelier than ever, and less social than ever?
It’s pretty simple, Haidt argues: We changed childhood.
The mass migration of childhood, Haidt says, from the real world to the virtual world has completely changed what it means to be a kid. By replacing free and independent play and quality time with friends with the isolation of screens and phones, we instigated what he calls the “Great Rewiring of Childhood.” What resulted, he argues, is a childhood that is “more sedentary, solitary, virtual, and incompatible with healthy human development.”
Today, Haidt explains how this massive change happened, its detrimental effects on kids, and what actions we can take—both in our own lives and legislatively—in order to reverse course and free the anxious generation.
The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through Bookshop.org links in this article.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
You Are the Last Line of Defense
Sam Harris: The Bright Line Between Good and Evil
Does Elon Musk Have Too Much Power?
A World Spinning Out of Control
How Hamas Executed a Massacre, and How One Israeli with Nine Bullets Fought Back
The Stories—and Stakes—of War in Israel
The New Axis of Evil: Condoleezza Rice on War in Israel and a Changed World
Bring Back My Children: An Israeli Mother's Plea
War in Israel: Michael Oren Explains How ‘Evil’ Infiltrated the Country
James Carville Says Wokeness “Is Over,” 2024 Will Be “Dangerous”—and Much More from the Democratic Political Icon
We're All "a Little Bit Dumber": A Night Among GOP Hopefuls
Is Biden Too Old to Be President? Frank Foer Isn't Sure.
Replay: Why Leonard Cohen Ran Toward War
What We're Listening To: Does Anyone Have a Right To Sex?
What We're Listening To: Richard Dawkins on UnHerd
The First GOP Debate and The Elephant Not In The Room
Meet Will Hurd: The Ex-CIA, Anti-Trump Republican Who Wants To Be President
How to Live After Profound Loss
Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Wants a Second American Revolution
Are We In A Pre-War Era?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
The Commentary Magazine Podcast
Conversations with Tyler
UnHerd with Freddie Sayers
heretics. | andrew gold
Making Sense with Sam Harris